Performance of a Be Refractive Lens

The performance of a beryllium compound refractive lens (CRL) was tested in the energy range of 11.5 to 8.0 keV. The beryllium refractive lens consists of 50 aligned, 1-mm-diameter, hollow spheres in a solid block of beryllium, 30 mm X 20 mm X 55 mm. The minimum web between each hollow sphere was 0.10 mm. The measured focal length of the lens for x-rays close to the axis of the beam was 147.7 cm +/- 2.0 cm at 10 keV and 120.2 +/- 2.0 cm at 9.1 keV. These values agree well with the theoretical values of 146.6 cm and 121.4 cm, respectively. The diameter of the best focus obtained at 10 keV was 35 mum horizontal and 45 mum vertical. For the modified version of the lens used in the 9.1 keV experiment these values were 25 mum horizontal and 35 mum vertical. The x-ray beam cross section for the 10 keV and the 9.1 keV experiments were 0.50 mm X 0.50 mm and 0.30 mm X 0.30 mm, respectively. The enhancement of the flux (photons per sq. mm) was 50:1 at 10 keV and 80:1 in the 9.1 keV experiment.